Which of these two would you matte and frame?

[sharod]

Same shot, second is just cropped more. I would really like to hang this on my wall but am stuck as to which one to use.

Any C&C would be greatly appreciated!!!

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y71/wdwmom2/20071118019.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y71/wdwmom2/Copyof20071118019.jpg

[jillybean]

For me #1- ( but your cropped picture is awfully close to the same as orig)

[Jamie Holladay]

#1 for me as well.

[CincyShooter]

numero uno

[stathunter]

Could be my monitor but what about bumping up the saturation a bit--to make them pop.

[sharod]

For me #1- ( but your cropped picture is awfully close to the same as orig)

The cropped one is very close to the original, just wasn't sure how much of the mill I wanted to take up the pic.


Could be my monitor but what about bumping up the saturation a bit--to make them pop.

Actually, this is with the saturation bumped up. I printed it out using Mpix with the sat slightly higher than what you are seeing here and it just looked too saturated. Maybe I will go back and rework it alittle.

Thank you everyone. I do appreciate your opinions!!!

[Apollo11]

#2 for me. Just add a touch of saturation and a touch of contrast. Great image!

[Katbird]

#1... You get the whole picture. Really it's beautiful I wouldn't crop out any of the colorful surroundings.

[Radtech1]

I would use THIS one. Your first post but vingetted.

http://dc15.4shared.com/download/36892955/f523a37e/200711180191.jpg

[Angdvl089]

I like the tighter crop of #2 but it would be nice to see more of the rocks and trees on the right like in #1.

[FlyingPhotog]

I'd use #1. In #2, you'll lose the tree camera right behind the matte since it's so close to the edge.

[SomeDudeD]

i really like 1, how about this.?

[cfcRebel]

Radtech1's vignetting effect adds magic to the already beautiful #1.

[kato1]

^ Absolutely agree.

[kmorgan]

I also liked the first shot. I would increase the saturation and contrast myself. Here I used LAB mode and steepened the A and B channels at the top and bottom 20% each and moved the Lightness channel curve on the dark end to the bottom of the histogram.

Kevin

[Jim G]

First one for me - the crop works better than the second.

[sharod]

Wow, you guys are giving me alot to think about!! Looks like #1 is more appealing to the majority of you.

And to you people that did some editing....you're hired:lol:;)! Great jobs!! Guess I will work on the pic myself this weekend.

Thank you all for your responses, they are appreciated!!

[Radtech1]

Just to give you an idea of how I achieved my effect thought I would post a couple of quick "work in progress" shots.

To begin with I created a duplicate layer on top of the background layer (by default Photoshop calls this new top layer "Background Copy" - I'll just call it top layer because it's easier.)

Then, working on the top layer, I selected the "Oval Marquee" tool, with the Feather set at 100 pixels. I put the crosshairs well below the bottom of the picture underneath of the rock on the left. I proceeded to drag the crosshair up and to the right until it was above the mill. That gave me a selection that is outlined by the red oval on the first post here. When you release the mouse the oval will get smaller, nothing to worry about.

I then cut that selection out (in Windows CTRL+X) which left a very soft edge hole in the middle of the top layer. This is what you see in the second post here, except the transparent area is rendered as white here.

[Radtech1]

Once you have the top layer appropriately prepared all that remains is to select the Blend Mode and Opacity. As you can see from the first post here I chose "Multiply" as the blend mode and 75% as the opacity. The final result is the bottom post here.

By the way, compositionally, this is an excellent shot. I envy the fact that you have this type of subject close at hand.

You might be wondering why your second version above does not work. It is because the crop on the right-hand side cuts off the leading line. As a viewer, when I look at your first version, the first thing I see is the stream at the bottom of the frame, my eyes follow the stream to the right, and the bank of the stream gently pushes my attention back upstream, into the photograph, up to the mill. But on your second crop, as my vision starts to follow that line, all of the sudden: BOINK! I slam into the arbitrary artificial frame that you put there, which cuts off the natural framing provided by the streams bank.

In every situation I can think of, and especially for nature/landscape shots, I will take natural framing over artificial every day of the week and twice on Sunday. And I think Robert Lay will back me up on that.

Rad

[Bill Boehme]

The first one! And it is very good work, BTW.

Could be my monitor but what about bumping up the saturation a bit--to make them pop.

I can't tell if you were kidding or actually serious. If serious, I suspect that your monitor is way out of adjustment.

[Glenn NK]

By the way, compositionally, this is an excellent shot. I envy the fact that you have this type of subject close at hand.

You might be wondering why your second version above does not work. It is because the crop on the right-hand side cuts off the leading line. As a viewer, when I look at your first version, the first thing I see is the stream at the bottom of the frame, my eyes follow the stream to the right, and the bank of the stream gently pushes my attention back upstream, into the photograph, up to the mill. But on your second crop, as my vision starts to follow that line, all of the sudden: BOINK! I slam into the arbitrary artificial frame that you put there, which cuts off the natural framing provided by the streams bank.

In every situation I can think of, and especially for nature/landscape shots, I will take natural framing over artificial every day of the week and twice on Sunday. And I think Robert Lay will back me up on that.

Rad

Very well put - and I will also back you up on this line of reasoning.

And thanks for the tutorial - very interesting and useful.

[sharod]

Just to give you an idea of how I achieved my effect thought I would post a couple of quick "work in progress" shots.

Thank you for posting this. After I saw your editing, I googled how to vignette in Photoshop Elements 5. I found many articles, picked the one I understood the best, and went to work.

I admit, I am more of a beginner at PSE 5, messed up somewhere along the way, and it didn't turn out. This weekend I will use your instructions and see what I come up with.

Thank you again. And thank you guys for the new responses!!

[Andrushka]

#2 for me with more contrast and saturation